Season five of Game Of Thrones is almost here to spatter the faces of HBO viewers with a fresh coating of blood, gore, and full-frontal nudity. In the run-up to the new season, the internet has been dealing with the near certainty that Thrones will soon outpace its source material, George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series. So far, Martin has kept his most rabid fans at bay by releasing the occasional chapter from the upcoming The Winds Of Winter; now he has done so again, serving up an excerpt chapter from the point of view of Sansa Stark.
Although earlier reports suggested that Martin was nowhere close to finishing the next entry in the series, more recent news indicates he’s decided/been encouraged to focus his efforts on wrapping up The Winds Of Winter sooner rather than later. That news, combined with the fact that the show will continue to deviate further from the books, should help the reading faithful retain some shred of smug superiority over their boob-tube watching counterparts. This move should also encourage hectoring fans to redouble their efforts at shaming Martin until he stops attending conventions, talking about his beloved New York Jets, or having any sort of life that isn’t writing about dragons, palace intrigue, graphic torture, or what lies beyond the Wall.
Aside from identifying the Sansa POV, we won’t spoil the contents of the chapter here, but be warned; previous excerpts created such an uproar that web traffic temporarily crashed his site’s servers.